Skin and Bones
by Karin Matthews
Summary: After a near death experience which almost ended both Ed and Roy's lives. Ed has become very aware of his weight. Will Roy notice something is up with Ed, or will the Fullmetal alchemist's life continue to be threatened. Contains mild swearing & anorexia.
1. Chapter 1

"Edward come on, stay with us! Don't you dare let go!"

It was taking all of Roy's strength to keep Edward from falling to his death, while fighting some rouge runaways who had been raping young woman in a mining warehouse; Edward had been tripped and fell into a broken lift shaft. Roy had just managed to catch his arm before he fell. But the kid was heavy due to the automail.

"Ed, you're too heavy, you have to find a foot hole and push up!" But Ed couldn't find a foot hole; the whole shaft had been lined with steel creating a smooth flawless surface.

"There are no foot holes, forgod sake Mustang, there no sense in both of us falling!" Ed's eyes widened as Roy's body lurched forward under Ed's weight. But he caught himself.

"Ed I'm not going to let you fall! Even if I have to sit here holding you up until back up comes!"

Roy's arm was in so much pain, being dragged down by two full limbs of automail, plus Ed himself and gravity. Just don't think about it, Roy kept saying to himself. There was no way he was gonna just let the kid go.

"Colonel!" Finally Falman, Breda, Furey and Hawkeye came running into the warehouse.

"Help me pull Fullmetal up!" All 5 of them grabbed hold of Ed's hands and dragged him up.

"Bloody hell Ed, you aren't half heavy" Breda joked

"Ah shut up" said Ed waving them off and yelping as Hawkeye smacked himself and Roy round the head.

"And don't you two ever run off without back up again!"

"Yes Ma'am" they both said.

They all walked out laughing apart from Ed, he knew they had only been joking, but for some reason, the words about his weight hit a nerve. He could have killed both himself and Colonel.

A week later Roy walked up to Ed in the canteen, the kid was sat at a table reading a book with no food in front of him.

"No lunch today squirt" Ed slammed his book down.

"WHO YOU CALLING SO SMALL AN ANT COULD EAT HIM FOR LUNCH AND STILL NEED SECONDS!"

Roy blinked and then smirked

"I didn't say anything like that. Just thought I'd let you know that they caught the guys from that warehouse. Idiots went back to it after we left".

Ed let out sigh "some people are just born idiots. You would know a lot about that"

Roy raised an eyebrow "I don't think so, you may be the youngest ever state alchemist Fullmetal but you still work under me".

Ed puffed and then went back to his reading.

"So, you're seriously not eating lunch?" he raised his eyes over his book

"Me and Al are going out later" Ed said quietly

"Oh right, and you have such a small body that you can handle more than one meal a day"

"IM WARNING YOU BASTARD!"

Roy laughed again and walked away sighing and saying something about getting back to his pile of paper work that was so big it was 10 times the size of Ed. Ed himself let that one slip since if that was true it was gonna make the bastard very unhappy anyway. Hehehe.

But Ed's smile faltered once Roy was out of the room, he hated lying, for some reason especially to Roy. He and Al weren't going out tonight. The truth was from the time he got home the day of the warehouse incident, he hadn't eaten a thing. So far Al hadn't noticed and he had always managed to lie his way out of close calls. It had been hard at first, but the memory of almost getting Mustang killed because his stupid body was too heavy gave him the will to keep going.

3 months later

"Fullmetal, were going out for lunch, I'm sure we could squeeze you in the car seeing as your so short and all"

Ed raised his eyes from his paperwork and glared, but he didn't react "No thanks Colonel Bastard"

"Come on Ed, we don't want you eating Cafeteria food while were eating something decent" Riza intervened; Ed smiled but shook his head.

"Thanks Riza, but I'm fine, I'm not really that hungry" Roy frowned Ed had been coming up with these excuses for a while now. And he hadn't seen him eat in ages. Walking over too him he grabbed his wrist.

"You're coming Fullmetal that's an order" He dragged him out the door.

"Let me go! You can't force me to go! Let go Mustang, Mustang, Roy!"

Riza was about to tell Roy to calm down but then she saw his face, something was wrong.

Roy forced Ed into the car and he tried to make a break for it.

"Havoc, hold him!" Havoc looked confused but obeyed grabbing Ed by the arms and holding him in his seat, but the more the young man struggled the wider Havoc's eyes went. A few weeks ago Ed's arms had been small but muscular, now they were just bone.

Once they were at the restaurant the struggle began again, the lady who was meant to show them to their seats looked alarmed.

"Don't worry, he's always like this" Roy smiled at her with his most winning smile and she instantly forgot about the fighting young blonde Roy was dragging by the hair.

"Sit down and stop acting like a child!"

"I'll stop when you let go of my god damn hair bastard!" Roy let go and Ed sat, rubbing his head from where Roy had been pulling his braid.

"Can I take your orders?" Everyone ordered and when it came to Ed, he was about to say "I'm not hungry" when Roy intervened.

"He'll have the chicken salad as well" Ed glared at him.

When the food came the air became a bit lighter, but Mustang and Havoc kept their eyes on Ed, he nibbled at the food and moved it around his plate a lot, but he ate very little.

Eventually it was time to leave everyone stood up but Roy raised a hand.

"You all go on ahead; Fullmetal and I are going to stay here for a bit"

"Why!" said Ed, he wanted to get out of here, the smell of food made him feel sick these days.

"Because you're going to eat all of you food. I mean it Edward Elric, either you eat or I tell everyone" Ed's eyes widened, how could he know? Was he that obvious? No of course not, and even if he did he wouldn't show them not in with this many people watching.

Riza cocked her head slightly to the side, putting two and two together. She had noticed that Ed was starting to look slightly gaunt and his cloths baggier that they were normally, but she had thought it was just stress, but the more she thought about it now, the more she could see all the signs.

"I'm not hungry Mustang and you can't force food down my throat!" Mustang gave him a deathly glare.

"Watch me" Riza bustled everyone out, knowing that the two alchemists needed time alone, before she left she gave Roy a "don't you dare hurt him" look.

Once they left Ed turned his head away

"You know, I rang Alphonse when I went out an hour ago. Asked him about you, thought it was a bit sus pious that you were going out so often when Al can't even eat food. Do you know what though; he doesn't know anything about it. He says you've been saying that you've been staying late at work and eating there!" silence

"What's going on Ed?" Roy was trying to calm things down now, knowing that getting angry with Ed very rarely gets the desired response.

"It's nothing" said Ed standing up and going to walk out the door. Roy quickly put the bill on his tab and followed, grabbing Edward and dragging him to the side of the restaurant; it was getting dark earlier these days so the blackness was hiding them from passers-by.

Once again Ed tried to make a break for it but Roy caught him round his stomach, or lack of it. Roy could feel every single one of Ed's ribs and he wasn't even holding him hard.

Slamming him against the building Roy's black eyes glared in to Ed's golden ones.

"This is going to stop now Fullmetal. Every day you're going to come with me and eat a whole plate of food for lunch and then every night I'm going to make sure Al calls me and tells me whether you ate anything when you go home. Understand!"

**A/N: ok I wrote this a while ago now when I first started my case study project, such as the previous story on PLS. I write this much and I'm stuck. So if you want me to continue this please leave a review, because I need some motivation. And if you have any ideas on how I could continue then idea would be very welcome.**

**Until then. Karin x**


	2. Chapter 2

"This is going to stop now Fullmetal. Every day you're going to come with me and eat a whole plate of food for lunch and then every night I'm going to make sure Al calls me and tells me whether you ate anything when you go home. Understand!"

Ed stared into the onyx eyes that were before him, seeing the solid meaning in the treats he had just been given. Finally the hopelessness sank in.

"It's not that easy" he whispered severing the eye contact. Roy flustered, he had been expecting Ed to either accept this or fight back with denial.

"What do you mean?" he said loosening his grip on Ed's shirt.

"I tried to pull myself together a few weeks ago, but it didn't matter how hard I tried. I just couldn't do it; I just kept making myself sick which in turn made me lose even more weight at an ever faster rate". Roy looked at him softer now when he saw the pleading look in the young man's eyes. He wanted help but was too ashamed to ask for it.

"Come on" he said putting an arm around Ed and leading him away.

"Where are we going?"

"I'll take you home and then we can discuss how we can take the first steps to helping you"

They walked for a few minutes in silence; they had to walk back since Riza had already taken the car.

"Thank you" said Ed after a while, he didn't look at the older man, and the older man did not reply. Neither needed to say anything that was the beauty of the relationship they had. They did not think of each other as friends, but in the same instance they were much more than that.

Back at Ed and Al's place, Alphonse opened the door and was surprised to see Mustang.

"What's wrong?" he asked "has this got something to do with your phone call Sir?" Roy nodded quietly as he and Ed entered and Ed went and sat down on a stall in the kitchen; a room he had spent a lot of time in within the last few months. Since deciding to stop eating, he felt comfort in being in a place where food was prepared; he often looked through cooking books and read the food critics in the daily newspaper. They seemed to feed him as food once had.

"Alphonse, Edward has a problem, and from this point on we are going to try and help him overcome it". Al looked over at his older brother who was sat at the kitchen counter staring off into space.

"I should have seen it sooner" he said once Mustang had fully explained what was going on

"It's not really Ed's fault, it's a psychological disorder as well as an eating one. It must have been started when me and him were almost killed earlier in the year with that warehouse case"

Although Al had no body, Mustang could still understand ever bit of body language coming from the form in front of him. The head shooting up, and back straightening and the legs starting to rise from his sitting position.

"What incident?" Ed hadn't told him.

"Ok then it defiantly started there, Al I think your brother has had this problem for a while, but because he's stubborn Edward he hid it very well. Don't take the fact that he didn't tell you personally. Ed is not well and at this moment in time the only think we need to worry about is getting him sorted out. Right?"

Al didn't hesitate in answering, it was true he was sort of mad at Ed for not confiding in him, but he also knew that Ed's mind was like a labyrinth and Ed could something get easily lost within it.

A few days later it was obvious they weren't going to cure Ed by just watching him eat. At lunch Mustang put a small sandwich in front of Ed to eat. Ed cut it up into pieces and seemed to work out a system and only at the pieces that passed correctly through his "system" which wasn't very many of them.

"This is hopeless Mustang" said Ed finally pushing the plate away "I just can't bring myself to eat"

"You've got to, your bodies already lost too much weight for it to handle, lose any more and who knows what could happen" he then quickly noted on the fact he sounded like he cared and so added "your no good to me dead Fullmetal".

"Yeh I'm well aware of that" he then stood up and walked out of the room, he knew mustang didn't really mean it like that. Although it was true that if he kept doing this he was inevitably going to basically kill himself. Walking down the hall, Ed could feel his heart pumping faster and faster in his chest. It had started doing this whenever he got stressed and he found that sitting with his head between his knee's helped this.

So he did, ignoring the fact he was sat on the side of a corridor in the middle of headquarter in central military. There was no one currently in the hall so who was going to see?

"Edward?" Shit.

Ed looked up to see Riza looking down on him with concern "Are you alright?" Ed quickly started to get up.

"Yeh Riza I'm fine" but standing up quickly made his head spin.

"Edward?" shit shit shit. Roy rounded the corner and walked up to them and Ed couldn't take any more, his head was pumping faster and faster getting louder and louder.

Until finally he felt his eyes roll into the back of his head and he collapsed, only just falling into Roy's arms.

"Call Knox!" shouted Roy at Riza "I'll meet you there" he said as he lifted the young man into his arms, swallowing back that sickly feeling as he noted how light Edward was compared to that day at the warehouse that now seemed like a life time ago.

If only they hadn't gone off without backup, then Ed wouldn't have got into danger then no comments would have been made then Ed would still be alright now and not limp in his arms, resembling a skeleton more than a man.

When they reached Knox, he took off Ed's shirt and Riza gasped and Roy just wanted to cry, though he would never admit that out loud.

His body was caving in on itself, every bone was prominent, his skin translucent, his veins bright blue and glaring off his body.

Mustang sank into a chair next to where Knox was working on the blond collection of skin and bones.

"Ed".

_**A/N here's the next bit. I'd just like to say to those few people have sent me emails about how serious this illness is and how i shouldn't be taking it lightly by putting it in a story such as this. i would ask that you get your facts straight before pointing any fingers. i know how serious this illness is, i had first hand experience with it. But that doesnt mean it cant write about it in a way i love too. If anything it could let some people know about it and maybe they could realise they know someone with it and be able to save them in time. So please no more nasty emails. for the people that left lovely reviews thank you so much. and i hope this next bit of the story is not a disapointment to you.**_

_**Karin x**_


	3. Chapter 3

_Ed_

_Mom?_

_Don't do this Edward, your brother needs you. You promised to take care of him._

"I know mom" the words just managed to pass through Ed's lips loud enough for Mustang to hear.

"Fullmetal?" the eyes opened a crack and the metal arm came up to shield them from the bright hospital lights.

"What happened?" something was different about his voice and yet familiar too.

"Your blood sugar level dropped, you passed out and we brought you too Knox".

There was a moment's pause as the two alchemists collected their thoughts.

"The Doc said he could put you on a food drip. It would be hard going since you've trained your body to reject food. But if it works…" he trailed off as he saw Ed lower his metal arm.

"We can only do it with your consent though. Your 18, I can't make decisions for you and treat you like a child".

"You know, I'd say you treated me in a lot of ways" laughed Ed, thinking of the fights, the arguments, the snide comments behind and in front of each other's backs "But you've never treated me like a child" he opened his eyes completely and Roy saw the golden flame back in them. He hadn't even realised it had been missing over these last few weeks, but here it was, in his eyes and in his voice. Determination.

"Do it".

The drip was attached and the rehab started. And as Roy had said, it was brutal.

"Are you alright brother?" Al asked watching Ed intently with his glowing eyes, Ed was sat cross legged on his hospital bed with his eyes closed taking deep breaths in through his nose out through his mouth. He nodded and continued the ritual breathing exercise Knox had told him to do whenever he felt sick.

"For once in your life Ed, being sick is not better out than in, we need to keep the nutrients down you".

After a few more minutes Ed groaned and put his head in his hands; Al straightened, knowing the signs of his brother reaching his limit.

"Morning Fullmetal" said Roy as he walked in standing at the foot of Ed's bed, coffee in hand and unreadable mask on his face.

"F*** off Mustang" replied Ed not looking up.

Like Al, Roy could also tell the signs now that Edward was reaching the point when he couldn't keep the food down any longer.

"How longs it been?" he asked

"4 hours" replied Al, Roy nodded in approval, when they first attached the drip Ed couldn't hold stand it without being sick for more than an hour, he was defiantly improving.

"Let's see if we can get it too at least 6 hours today squirt, the longer you leave it the more your body with absorb". Ed growled and looked up finally, moving his hand from resting his head to his chin.

"Easy for you to say Bastard" he paused as his chest lurched, a sign that he was starting to heave.

The head went back into the hands for a while and then he groaned and lay face down onto his pillow.

There were some muffled words that Mustang didn't catch.

"What did he say?" Al let out a quite laugh

"I'd rather not repeat it Sir".

Mustang sighed and sat down next to Al, he looked the young blonde up and down. It had been a week since they attached the drip and although Ed's body still looked neglected you could see his skin was becoming less translucent and his face less deathlike.

"Havoc and the other's say get well soon, they want to come and see you but I agree with you when you say you don't want to see them." There came a muffled "whatever" from the pillow.

"I did get a call yesterday however. From Miss Rockbell" Ed's body visibly stiffened "She wants to come and see you she said she needs to make sure your automail is still in working condition and isn't causing your body any more stress".

Ed shifted his head slightly so that Mustang could now just about see the golden eyes looking at him, he saw the conflict within them. On the one had Ed wanted to see his friend more than anything but at the same time her seeing him like this would make her upset. And Roy knew that was something Ed hated doing.

The only reason he had agreed to Winry being informed of his condition was because Al had convinced him she had a right to know and that it was better to inform her now rather than her finding out herself or by someone else later.

"I dunno" said Ed quietly, his automail had been sore lately due to the weight of it and his weight lose but if Winry cried at the sight of him, he didn't think he could take that. He never wanted to make her cry or worry. Never.

"Well think about it" Roy stood up "I've got to get back to work"

"Roy Mustang doing work, that's unheard..." Ed trailed off quickly lurching to his side, where Al was waiting with a cardboard bowl.

"It's alright brother, just relax" Al soothed, rubbing his brothers back. Roy couldn't help but feel a twinge of feeling for the boy. He had gone through so much already with his brother and his automail, losing his mother and that good for nothing father of his. He really didn't need this as well.

He handed Ed a glass of water, he took it and nodded his head in thanks before lying down and thinking.

"If she does come, can you make sure she comes just after they start it again? I don't want her to have to see this"

The raven haired man nodded in understanding and left the room, leaving the brothers alone once more.

"How is he?" Roy turned to see Hawkeye, her head bowed slightly to avoid his eye contact, not wanting him to see just how worried she was about Edward.

"He's getting better, but I'm not going so sugar coat it and tell you he's out of danger. He's still got a long way to go".

They walked back to Roy's office and he picked up the phone calling Ed's mechanic. She seemed calmer than the last time they had spoken, back then she had seemed distraught and desperate to see Ed, now everything that was happening seem to have sunk in.

"Alright Miss Rockbell, I'll see you in a few weeks" Roy put the phone down and Riza questioned him.

"A few weeks?"

"Full metal's physical appearance hasn't changed much, for Miss Rockbell to see him as he currently is…I think it would do more damage than good…for both of them". Riza nodded slowly in understanding, she had not seen Edward since he had passed out a few weeks ago, and stupidly she had thought he would recover faster.

"So hopefully when she does come to see him, he'll look like his old short suborn self" said Roy pulling out some more papers.

"I hope your right Sir"

But he couldn't have been more wrong, a week before Winry was due to visit, Ed's body started to reject everything, all food, nutrients, medication. He was losing weight faster than ever and Dr Knox was becoming desperately worried.

"I know he won't want it but we have to get his mechanic down here as soon as possible, he's taken a turn for the worse and I think his automail is just stressing his body even more". Roy ran a hand through his hair. This could not be happening, Ed had been getting better, had been holding down the food for nearly whole days, and was due to start eating solids again in a few days. His body had started to gain its weight back and now he looked worse than ever.

"Alright, I'll call her. But Knox please, tell me he's going to be alright" the Dr looked sadly at his friend.

"I'm sorry Mustang, I can't tell you that. Unless we can do something to gain his weight back, his body is going to give out".

**A/N So glad i'm starting to get a better response to this story. You can proberly guess how its going to end but i'll apologise in the next chapter. If it seems a bit choppy, i'm sorry, i was writing this at the back of a lecture hall haha. i really hope my teacher doesnt read fanfiction :P please review Karin x**


	4. Chapter 4

**Ok so here I have two endings too this story, the one I'm gonna use for my case studies and the one that's full of alchemy and is simply there so my readers don't hunt me down and kill me.**

Winry was called and she caught the next train to Central.

"How is he?" she asked Hawkeye who was picking her up at the station, Riza shook her head sadly.

"He hasn't improved, his body is getting weaker by the day" tears were threatening in both of the women's eyes.

"I can't believe he's become like this, Mr Mustang said he was getting better!"

"The Dr said it was a relapse that his body's functions took over his determination to beat it. He was starting to hurt himself he was trying so hard to get better".

The car ride to Ed was silent as neither one knew what else to say. They both loved Ed in their own way and it was breaking both of their hearts to think of him in pain and….dying.

"Miss Rockbell" said Mustang opening to door for her.

"Winry, please. How is he Sir?" Mustang led the young blonde down the corridors to where Ed was being kept.

"He's a little better this morning, he was awake when I left him and asking for you" Winry couldn't help a small smile creep onto her lips. They were drawing close now; Winry was trying to prepare herself for the sight of Ed, wondering if was really going to be as bad as the Colonel had made it out to be.

But when they were a metres from the door the was a flat beep and the sound off Alphones' cry.  
>"Brother!"<p>

Mustang was running then, with the girl behind him. He saw Knox standing over Ed, trying to get his heart beating again Ed himself was deathly pale and wasn't breathing. There was a gasp from behind him.

Looking round he saw Winry, her hands over her mouth and tears flowing from her eyes in horror. After getting over his own shock Mustang stood forward.

"Knox what happened?"

"His heart gave out, as I said before" he kept pumping and then bringing his mouth down to Ed's and trying to breathe some life into him.

"Please please please" Winry whispered which turned into a horrific cry when the Dr stood up and shook his head, looking at his watch.

"Time of death, 12:15pm".

Roy could feel in lower lip tremble, no this couldn't have happened. Ed was ...was...Ed! He couldn't die. Not like this.

He felt the girl run past him to go to Ed's side, joining the suit of armour. Then he felt the arms around him and by the time he put his thoughts together to understand the situation. He was in Riza's arms with tears falling down his own cheeks.

(**Ok this is the amazing alchemy bit to save my own skin ;) but seriously I did it this way to show that that people with this condition are never fully in the clear, 25% of suffers die. Just wanted to make that clear before moving on.**

"Edward" Ed stirred "Edward" finally opening his eyes. Everything was white and quite apart from something calling his name. He sat up and stared at the whiteness.

"Finally" Ed turned and came face to face with the gate and its creepy white faceless being.

"Am I…"

"Dead? Yes"

Ed sighed

"Right. No going back this time I guess"

The Truth laughed "Well that all depends on what you have to trade doesn't it"

Ed raised an eyebrow "What do you mean? What more can you take from me?"

Again there came that dry and humourless laugh "I will make you a deal Edward, if you give me the life of your first born child…I will let you return to your body, bear in mind it will be up to you then to keep your body running as I won't make this deal again."

Ed paused thinking. His life back, giving up the life of his first child which would never be born if he was dead anyway.  
>"So it's just the first?"<p>

"Yes, if you expect 7 children then you will bare 6. Understand?" Ed nodded "or you could step through the gate and move on. Your choice"

"But why? Why are you giving me this choice?"

"Because you are destined to things no other man can ever dream of doing"

Ed went back into thought, he couldn't tell how long for because time didn't really exist here.

"Have you made your decision?"

"Yes"

"Sir we had better go and inform the others" Riza said wiping her eyes and pulling Roy away from her. They looked at Ed he had been dead for nearly an hour now. And life had already seem to have just stopped.

"No no Ed, please no" Winry was still murmuring into Ed's chest.

"Miss Rockbell"

"Winry" Al pulled her away from Ed and the all started to walk out the room.

_Gasp cough cough gasp_

They all turned on their heels and saw Ed's chest rising.

"But that's impossible" said Knox his eyes wide and mouth hanging open.

"Edward?" said Winry taking a step forward. After a few moments of raspy breathes the golden eyes opened. "Oh my gosh, Edward!" she ran forward and hugged him. Al also joined her but was a little bit more careful.

"But, but how?" said Al looking his brother in the eye.

"I haven't got your body back yet Al, so I'm not going anywhere just yet". Al was so happy that his brother was alive that he didn't bother asking any questions.

But as Roy stared on he couldn't help but wonder. What had Ed given up in order to get his life back?

After months of rehab Ed was finally fit enough to go home. It had taken will power beyond anything Knox had ever seen. But Ed explained that he had been given a second chance at life and he wasn't going to waste it. And he didn't finally going back to the place where he had grown up and asked Winry to marry him. They seemed happy for 2 years after the wedding but when Winry fell pregnant, Ed became very quiet. He had never told anyone of his deal at the gate. And he would hold that guilt forever.

And no one seemed to ever ask about it over the years that followed. Ed and Winry had 3 children Piniko, Rose and Victor Elric. But the family, though happy was forever tainted with the sadness of the child whose face never smiled up at them. Trisha Isumi Elric, born 25th September. Still birth.

Payment.

**And theres the end :) I hope you enjoyed it, and i hope you were all happy with the ending. Please leave a review to let me know how you liked it. Until Next time. Karin x  
><strong>


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